In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Kamasi Washington talked about his progress on the follow-up to 2015's The Epic. "On the newer songs I'm writing right now, I'm not thinking in a diatonic sense," he explained. "They're not in any particular kind of key. It opens up a different approach."

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The saxophonist hopes to hit the studio "in the next couple of months." He won't be alone: "I have plans for more large-ensemble stuff, doing some brass ensembles and not just things with the choir." But he's also been experimenting with "recording myself over and over again. Like a 32-piece saxophone thing... I'm like, 'Hey, that sounds cool. Maybe it's something I want to do for real.'"

Washington apparently has other projects in the pipeline as well. "I also have this graphic novel that I'm working on," he noted, based on "this story that inspired me to put out my album in its entirety, instead of reducing it down to a single CD. I had a dream [with] a story that encompassed all the songs [on The Epic], which really led me to have the conviction that I was really going to put it out. So I'm creating a graphic novel for that."